by S G Read
The next house was right next to the road and they passed it as it only had a small garden, then they came to a side road and stopped.
'It must be down there.' Stuart declared.
'Yes it has to be.' Stevey agreed and they turned down the side road.
A little further on, a house drive led away from the road they were on, again they stopped. A faded sign lay on the ground and Stevey picked it up. It was a for sale sign, one that had seen better days. Stuart pulled back some bushes and found the house name, Gordon Hall.
'This must be the place!' He declared. 'It sounds like it has a big garden!'
They hid their bicycles and walked down the drive stealthily. The squeak, squeak of the gardener’s wheel barrow alerted them long before he passed them and they hid in the bushes, by the side of the drive. The old gardener passed the end of the drive and walked on blissfully unaware that he was being watched. When he had gone, they walked down to the end of the drive, to where the house stood. It was obviously unoccupied, as there were no curtains at the windows and when they moved closer they could see cobwebs inside.
'Wow! We could have some fun in there!' Stuart whispered, peering through the dirty window.
They walked on, making sure no one was watching. The path followed the hedge, which turned into a taller hedge with the familiar chain link fencing behind it. They slipped behind the hedge and walked on between the hedge and the chain link fence. They could see the old house in the car breakers. They came to the corner and turned to follow the fence down toward the hole. Suddenly there it was, the hole.
'Now what?' Stevey asked.
'I’d like to know what they are talking about in there!' Stuart replied.
'But you said we was just doing a dry run!' Stevey complained.
'We have to make sure we can get in though!' Stuart retorted, not wanting to go away without more information.
The squeak, squeak of the wheelbarrow made the decision for them and they climbed over the two pallets put there to stop Marmalade getting out. It was obvious to the two boys, that if he wanted to get out, Marmalade could easily climb up and escape. They watched the old gardener go by with his empty wheel barrow.
'Now what?' Stevey asked fearing the worst and looking about warily. 'I will remind you that he was going to bash our brains out with a baseball bat!'
'Follow me.'
Stuart ran across to where Marmalade lay and gave him a bone before moving to the back of the old house, Stevey followed reluctantly. The back door was bolted and had wood to replace the glass which had been in its upper part originally. There was no way in that way. Stuart moved round to the front of the house, followed by Stevey. The front door was open and they could see no one. Stuart went inside but Stevey stayed outside, reluctant to go in. Stuart motioned him inside, Stevey hesitated for a second then followed him in, better to stick together, more chance of escaping that way! Inside to their right were the stairs leading up, they had the choice of going upstairs or passing the stairs and going to the back of the house. There was no sign of anyone and there was no noise. At the bottom of the stairs a door led into the front room and Stuart bravely peered inside. It was empty and damp, he walked back and started up the stairs. Stevey looked horrified and tried to get him to come back down, using gestures and hand signals but Stuart kept going. In the end Stevey followed him and they explored the three bedrooms and the bathroom up there but the roof was bad and most rooms were uninhabitable.
'They have to be in the kitchen.' Stuart whispered, pointing downstairs as he did so.
Stevey nodded and the moved to the top of the stairs in time to hear one of the men say. 'Well we are getting there Willie but we still have a long way to go.'
The two boys froze, terrified!
'Yes boss, we could have done without that delay.' The other man, obviously called Willie replied.
'Well if those kids get in the way again, then remove them once and for all but make sure they aren’t found here!'
The boys relaxed slightly, they did not know they were there!
'No I’ll put them with their friend, in that old cave. No one goes there anymore not since the cave in!'
The two men went outside and the two boys heard a car start up. They now knew Mr. Bowyer’s first name, it was Willie. They also knew that he would be opening the gate for his boss. It was their cue to scarper, much to Stevey’s relief. They stopped at the fence to make sure the old gardener was no where to be seen, climbed out of the car breakers and hurried away.
When they reached their bikes Stuart looked at his watch. 'Half past four, we should be just in time.' He said happily.
'If they’d have caught us, we would have been late in more ways than one!' Stevey retorted and rode off.
'But they didn’t, they didn’t even know we were there!' Stuart called after him.
They rode back to Stuart’s house to eat before they went in to see Jenny.
Jenny was pleased to see them all, her face lit up when they arrived.
'That makes everyone I know has been in to see me today!' She declared. 'The others have just gone, they were telling me about your football target practice yesterday.'
'He had it coming.' Stuart assured her.
'Oh I can well believe it.' She replied. 'Thanks for the card Stuart. That is the first time I have had post since I have been in here!'
Stuart allowed a smile to cover his face, it was the first time he had actually done something, without asking for guidance from his father and it felt good. They took it in turns to sit round the bed and play games with her. Stuart had looked out games for many players and brought them in. When Jenny came home she could leave them for the hospital, if she wanted to. They stayed until they had to go and then took Brian home, it was a flat something like Stevey’s on a rundown estate but it was home. After they left Brian, they drove to Stevey’s flat to see Pat, she was now holding down three jobs and there was little time left for Stevey but they were getting out of debt. Rather than wait for the airline to pay up for the crash which left the boys on their own in the Columbian jungle. Pat was as pleased to see Stevey, as Stevey was to see him and they stayed longer than they had planned to but it was the thing to do. While they were there David talked to Pat about the forthcoming meeting of the committee, which was fighting the claim for compensation from the airline. He arranged to pick her up in the morning.
When they arrived home the two boys went up into Stuart’s room to plan.
'We have to do something about them!' Stuart conceded. 'But what can we do and not get our heads bashed in!'
'We know what they did with Lenny, we could send the police a letter.' Stevey suggested.
'No letters, they can trace the DNA. But a phone call from a payphone with a disguised voice but which cave were they talking about?'
'We could ask someone.' Stevey suggested.
'But when we sent them there and they asked around about it. They would find out that we were asking about it. They might think we did it!' Stuart declared.
'Then it is either the internet, which we can do tonight or go through the local paper back issues to find out about a cave-in, inside a local cave, which will have to wait until tomorrow.' Stevey replied.
'Yes! Well done Stevey.'
They turned on the computer and started working through the internet. They managed to find a list of caves nearby but there was no mention of cave-ins or caves which were unsafe.
'If we go to each one it will mean we’ve been to the place where the body is and they’ll try to pin it on us!' Stuart complained. 'This is a pain in the bum!'
'Tomorrow we will have to go through the back issues, to find a cave in at a cave.' Stevey said tiredly.
'Do you know how long that will take?' Stuart asked.
Stevey nodded. 'On the other hand we might get lucky.'
'And pigs might fly.' Stuart replied, using one of his father’s sayings.
'One just went by the window.' Stevey replied and climbed into bed.
&
nbsp; When they woke, they found David had already left for the meeting with the airline’s representatives. After breakfast they rode into the nearest town that boasted a library, ten miles away. Stevey complained all the way, as he was still riding Wendy’s bicycle. They arrived by ten o’clock in the morning and looked round the place. There were local paper back issues in big binders but to go through them all was a huge task and to ask, meant someone would know what they were about!
'What do we do?' Stevey asked, glad to be off the bicycle.
'I suppose we start from the last one and work backwards, we can say it is a project for school!'
They started looking. Turning back to the start of an issue and reading it through, then turning back to the start of the previous issue. Stuart had the latest year and Stevey the previous year. It was a ploy which eventually paid dividends. Five years back there was note of two potholers being killed in a cave in at a well known cave.
'Do you think it’s the one?' Stevey asked.
'One way to find out!' Stuart replied.
'I knew you were going to say that!' Stevey complained. 'How did I know you were going to say that? I thought we weren’t going near it?'
'But we are really going to wind the police up if we send them there and there isn’t any body!'
'I know but they will treat it as a crime scene and all that!' Stevey replied. 'One drop of sweat and we as good as convicted!'
'Then we will just have to make sure we don’t sweat!' Stuart replied. 'Come on I have an idea!'
They rode all the way home and collected a few things to help them. After finding the cave on their map, they rode to within one hundred metres of it and hid their bikes. They used their jungle knowledge to get closer to the cave without being seen only to see a couple having a picnic on the grass in front of the cave, with their two children. A sign on the front of the cave read "DANGER FALLING ROCKS".
'Now what?' Stevey whispered.
'We wait until they go, then look in the cave.' Stuart answered. 'At least it will give us a rest.'
'My bum thinks it has been on sandpaper!" Stevey complained. 'How can your mum ride that thing?'
'She has more padding where it counts,' Stuart replied, 'but don’t tell her I said that.'
They watched, every time the children strayed too close to the cave, one of their parents told them to come away and they did so but only grudgingly.
'They might find him for us!' Stevey whispered excitedly.
'They might and we wouldn’t have to go in there!' Stuart whispered back.
From then on they watched with more interest, as the two children edged closer and closer to the cave, urging them to go inside but the parents were very vigilant. Whenever they were too close, they called them away and in the end the two children gave up and played elsewhere. Now the two boys wanted them to go so they could investigate. The picnic eventually finished and was packed away, then they started to unpack a tent!
'No you can’t camp here!' Stuart moaned.
Then the woman said something to the man and he nodded in agreement. They packed the tent up and walked off, making sure the children were with them.
'Phew I thought they were going to camp there.' Stuart said in a slightly louder whisper.
'If they did those kids would have been sure to go inside the cave!' Stevey replied sagely. 'That’s probably why they moved on.'
Stuart sighed. 'And that would have saved us going in there. Still they’re gone now, come on let’s get ready.'
They covered everything with plastic bags and saran wrap, before they walked into the cave. At the start there was no sign of anything, then a smell made them stop.
'I’ve smelled that smell before!' Stuart said with his voice muffled by the things covering his face.
'Where?'
'The plane when you were unconscious!' Stuart explained.
'That’s a horrible smell.'
'That is the smell of death my friend.' Stuart said grimly. 'Let us find Lenny and get out of here.'
They walked on with the smell getting stronger until they saw his body in a little nook by the side of the cave. He was naked and face down on the floor.
'They stole his clothes!' Stevey cried.
'I wonder why they did that, maybe there was Willie’s blood on them, no I bet it was oil from the boot of that car!'
They had seen enough and hurried outside, they wanted to take all the covering off and get away from there without being seen. They made sure no one was watching then slid away into the bushes. They kept the gear on until they reached their bicycles then they took it all off with great relief. They put it all into a carrier bag and took it with them when they went. On the way home they passed a pay phone in the middle of nowhere on a junction.
'This will do!' Stuart cried, but they still rode past it to see what was round the corner.
When they were satisfied they were alone Stuart went into the phone box. Stevey squeezed in beside him making it hard for Stuart to pull out the telephone number he had written on a scrap of paper. He phoned the local paper and, with his mouth covered and trying to disguise his voice, he told them where the body was.
'Come on let’s go.' He cried when they were out of the phone box. 'Just in case they traced the call.'
They rode home happily and Stevey never complained once, about being back on Wendy’s bicycle.
'And where have you two been?' Wendy asked. 'I had lunch ready an hour ago!'
'We went further than we thought.' Stuart replied. 'What is there to eat? I’m starving.'
While Stuart ate more and more Stevey picked at his food, he kept seeing Lenny’s body and he could still smell that awful smell. In the end he gave up and went upstairs for a bath, unusual for him. After lunch they sat talking in Stuart’s room, planning their next move.
'We need to find the car he was hidden in.' Stuart exclaimed.
'But if we tell the police they won’t do anything!' Stevey argued.
'If we tell them where the car is with the blood stain in it is, after they have found the body they will have to!'
'Okay, when do we go in there and look for it?' Stevey asked.
'Now! But we do it sensibly. We’ll watch for him and make sure he is inside the house before we start our search and once we find it we leg it back here. No heroics, as we know they will kill us if they have a chance!'
'Sounds good to me!' Stevey agreed, he liked the no heroics bit.
They went downstairs trying to look nonchalant, then hurried out to their bicycles. They knew the way now and hid the bicycles in the same place at Gordon Hall, before they slipped into the garden. They made sure the old gardener did not see them, followed the same route and hid just inside the car breakers to watch. Marmalade was not on the chain and nowhere to be seen but he soon found them. They were just as pleased to see him, as he was to see them, as well as the chews they had with them. He lay down beside them while they watched the ramshackle house. Eventually Willie emerged from the house, walked behind a car, stayed there for a minute, then walked back inside again.
'Well we know where he is.' Stuart declared. 'Which we also know where he isn’t.'
They moved forwards with Marmalade following.
'Do we know what we are looking for?' Stevey asked.
'From that car book we looked at, I’d say it was an old Cortina, four doors and blue wasn’t it?' Stuart asked.
Stevey nodded. 'It’s a shame we didn’t get the number.'
'Of course!' Stuart cried. 'No number but the letters were FOX, I remember it now! It’s amazing what you remember when you think you can’t remember anything!'
Stevey nodded, he could still see Lenny’s body.
They walked round the car breakers looking for the car and making sure they could not be seen from the house. When they had searched it all they sat down in disgust.
'Now what?' Stuart complained.
Suddenly Stevey smiled. 'Look over there Stu, behind the house!'
T
here it was, a blue Cortina with the letters FOX! They swooped on it, opened the boot to make sure the blood stain was still there and found the wheel nut remover in there as well. They closed the boot and hurried back to the gap in the fence. Marmalade had the rest of the chews as a parting present, then they headed for their bicycles.
Willie watched them walk from round the back of the house, with Marmalade tagging along. He had the baseball bat in his hand but for once, he thought he had a good idea and let them go.
'Some guard dog that Marmalade is Ronnie!' He called.
'Let me go and I’ll show you just how good a guard dog I can be!' Ronnie replied from the next room, where he sat tied to a chair.
'You’ve been a bad boy again Ronnie. You just raped and murdered a boy and dumped him in a cave. Well actually you murdered and then raped him but it will come back to you just like it did last time!' Willie said with a laugh.
'I spent eight years in prison for that perverted crime you committed, I don’t intend to waste another eight years of my life, for something you did!'
'No, this time you’ll get life and I’ll get this place but by then I’ll be rich and I won’t need it as I’m printing my own pension!'
Ronnie was still yelling when Willie closed the door to the room he was in.
'Now you boys, I expect you to come back with the police but I’ll be ready for you.' He pulled the lever to open the hidden door, walked up the stairs out of the cellar and walked outside. He opened the boot of the car, doused it liberally in petrol and set fire to it. Then he returned to his work.
The boys rode home but as they had not announced the finding of the body yet, they chose to wait and not tell anyone about the car. As time went by they grew more anxious, watching the news and listening to the radio but there was no hint of it. The news at six moved to the local news and they saw the cave behind the reporter.
'Yes! They found it!' Stuart said quietly.
They listened to the report, then turned off the television. Ten minute later David arrived home. The two boys were next to the car by the time he stopped.
'We found the car dad, the one in the car breakers. The blood stains were still there and the wheel thing was in the boot as well! Stuart gabbled.
